Finally Sitaram Yechury has adorned the position he has long coveted and maneuvered for. However Comrade Sitaram would have hoped that his anointment came at a better time for Left unity and for the larger Left movement in the country.

It is ironical that the party which Mamata prefers to pour vitriol on, the BJP is growing from strength to strength in each State especially in her State and is, notwithstanding her bogey of “communalism”, rapidly gaining ground and acceptability among the people.

Modi has unceasingly spoken of the need to bring about an epochal shift in the entire understanding and performance of governance and referred to the need to look at bringing about a systemic shift in the way Governments perform and deliver, while he has repeatedly, since his inauguration and address in the Central Hall of Parliament, talked of his Government reaching out to the last woman/man standing and has in the last eight months displayed such a commitment and performance.

The obstruction of Parliament during the Winter Session has only exposed the actual intentions of the obstructionists – which a brazen disregard and disrespect for the resounding verdict that the people of India have delivered in favour of stability, prosperity, growth and a forward movement in terms of governance and delivery.

Irfan Habib’s and his coterie’s – who are all wedded to a certain political ideology and workers of a particular party – control of history writing in India is forwarded as scientific and non-political, their writing history textbooks are with the spirit of time and for the well-being and balanced growth of young minds but the moment others produce their own research, or their findings which are at variance with their “eminences”, these ought to be virulently attacked and silenced – such is the hollow intellectual secularism that these scholars have essentially practiced.

Pt Madanmohan Malviya followed his own conviction in politics, and also spoke of the Indian traditions, accorded them a certain centrality in his scheme and effort at India’s educational regeneration, perhaps because he saw a future for India that was defined by her civilisational traditions, memory and experience and refused to throw these aside while advocating the need to be open to the latest technology that emerged from Western experiments.

There is much noise being made on the issue of celebrating “Good Governance” Day in educational institutions and observing the birth anniversaries of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mahamana Madan Mohan Malaviya.

It was through the social-welfare ministry and its various programmes that the Jamaat made inroads deep into rural Bangladesh, a benefit they have been reaping now, ever since their political leadership has been on the dock.